The Monster You Made Me
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: She shouldn't love him this much. He's awful. Despicable. Horrible. He's just like her. A monster, a creature of the darkness. Because she loved him; because her love for him made him him that way. NarutoxIkaruga! Fluff! Tower of Paradise Arc. Oneshot?


**A/N: Well, this fic is a request from Absimilard. I'd all but forgotten our dear Ikaruga in place of the more prominent heroines in Fairy Tail. We only got to see precious little of her during the Tower of Paradise, and we know even less of her guild ****Death's Head Caucus**. Consider this a little AU story for those of you who are fans of Ikaruga as I am.

_"__Perhaps it is the fate of both love and life to scatter on the wind..._

_~Ikaruga._

**The Monster You Made Me**

She lay there, the lifeblood leaving her lungs. Pooling beneath her in a puddle of blood; a stain of crimson sickness as the life leached from her fingers. She'd failed. She had been defeated, by the woman whose hair so flawlessly mirrored the color of her own blood. Her sword shattered. Her will, sundered. She lay there; content to die, content to let it all end, and her failure never be known.

Etherion had consumed the tower, revealing it for its true form. A giant lacrima. What could Jellal possibly mean to do with it? She did not know. She did not care. She wished only to die, and for her failure to be forgotten.

Ah, but fate was rarely so kind; because a shadow fell over her; because a pair of hands laid themselves upon her, tending to her injuries. She wanted to resist wanted to kick and scream and strike him, but she was tired. So very tired. She hadn't the strength to fight him. She could only lay there, helpless, as he ministered to her. A warm glow had and held thrall over her; creeping into her aching bones and suffusing them with warmth.

She felt the life returning to her, empowering her, even as she wished to perish.

"Leave me." She hissed, struggling up at him. _"Let me die!"_ A pair of strong hands clasped her shoulders, forcing her to the floor. She flailed desperately, pointlessly. Strength left her even as she fought against his kindness. It was not enough. She wailed, knowing her battle to be fruitless. Her battle with Scarlet had left her weakened, and she held only weakness in her heart after her defeat.

Gasping, sobbing, cursing him and lamenting her failure, she sank back to the floor, and allowed him his work. A green glow suffused his hands as he bandaged her body, with all the grace and care of a skilled surgeon. It was difficult to believe someone so skilled in the art taking of life could just as easily save it.

"Why are you here?" She asked at last, the words a thin, reedy cry.

He said nothing. He finished dressing her wounds, and retrieved the fragments of her sword, slipping the shattered steel and hampered hilt into his satchel. He surveyed them for a moment, nodded, and pocketed them. A frozen fist clenched inside her gut. If he was here, standing before her then that meant only one thing; because this man was an assasin. His purpose was to kill; the wetwork that not even the most hardened of assassins dared attempt.

_He's not supposed to be here, _she thought to herself_._ Why is he here? He'd left the guild, weeks ago. Left her. Clearly, this was a lie. That he was standing here, before her,

"Have you come to kill me?"

Again, nothing.

The silence was deafening.

Instead, he loomed over her, still as a god, come to harvest her life. But he did not take her life. He saved it. Even as she felt the tower crumble around them even as she felt, it, the power of Etherion, surging upright and _out_of the tower, Ikaruga knew she would yet live. Why? Because she knew him. She'd known him for quite some time now. This S-Class mage was the closest thing she could call a friend, and perhaps, at times, a lover. Why? Because she knew this man.

She knew him more intimately than she knew himself.

She knew his scent; the crisp aroma of blood on the wind. She knew his face. She knew his scowl as he leered down at her, impassionate and stern. His blue eyes were twin pools of winter rather than the usual sky blue to which she'd grown accustomed. Spiky blond locks shaded a chiseled, whiskered face, parting, to expose the mark of Death's Head Caucus faded and worn upon his neck, staring out at her accusingly from beyond the rim of his high collar.

Clad in the blackest of garments, he gazed upon her. The softest of sighs graced his lips.

"You lost." It was not a question.

She glanced aside, ashamed; her prized sword, his gift to her, shattered, much like her pride.

"The others are dead." he said suddenly.

Ikaruga started, such was her surprise. She'd no love lost over Vidaldus or Fukuro, but to hear him speak of her partners' passing so simply was shocking. So it was true then, wasn't it. He'd betrayed the guild, and, instead of slaying an irresponsible woman such as herself, he had yet to kill her. Why was that? Surely, he didn't care for her, not after the bitter arguement that had led to their separation.

"Did you kill them?"

He pinnioned her with a gaze.

"I put them out of their misery, yes."

She laughed; it was a soft, whispery sound, like chimes in the wind.

"You're a monster."

"I'm only the monster you made me."

He had a point there.

"What will you do with me, then?" she steeled herself for the cold bite of his blade, but it never came. He reached for her face, the gloved fingers carressing her cheek with an infinite gentleness. His lips graced hers, smoothly, briefly. She cursed the lack of strength in her limbs as he pulled away. That, wasn't enough. She wanted more. She wanted him atop her, with her, within her-

_STOP!_

Ikaruga ruthlessly suppressed _that_ train of thought before it could consume her entirely. These were old feelings for him feelings she'd given up in service to the guild. But the taste of his lips lingered, promising more. She squirmed restlessly beneath him, her breasts heaving with each breath, struggling with them as her heart beat frantically within her chest. Now was not the time for this! Now was...not...the time...

A sharp crrraaack overhead brought her back from oblivion. The ceiling had begun to cave in, large shards of crystalline glass toppling towards them. She felt herself drawn to the right and the north, dragged out of the path of the falling debris.

"W-W-What are you doing?" She sputtered at him, her face turning as bright as her hair.

"I thought that was obvious, my _hime."_

Ikaruga nearly swooned. Hime. How long had it been since he'd last used the affectionate nickname? Many months now. To hear him say it so suddenly, so simply, so sweetly, set her heart aflutter.

He bent to one knee and stooped low; reaching for her waist with one hand and the other, her hips. He swept her forth from the floor like a babe and held her secure, carrying her as one would their bride. Despite herself, the huntress felt her face darken with shame. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held tight, determined not to show any signs of weakness as they departed from the crumbling tower.

"I'm taking you home."

_Home?_

Ikaruga had no home. Not anymore. She could no longer return to the guild. Death's Head Caucus did not broker failure. To return, would mean certain death. One could only wonder what he meant by home, then. Did he speak of the realm from which he once came? Doubtful. He'd explained to her long ago, he could never return to that place. He was trapped here, in this dimension.

"Where is this home, then?" she asked, as their surroundings began to blur beyond her vision.

"I thought we'd find ourselves a new guild." He remarked, the smallest smile tugging at his lips. "One more accepting of our unique...talents." Ikaruga didn't have to guess to know what he meant. He was speaking of a legal guild. And the only guild that would willingly accept assassins that would willingly accept former enemies, was the very guild to whom Trinity Raven had succumbed. The thought of it positively galled her. But if any place were willing to accept them...it would have to be them.

To Fairy Tail, then.

"Naruto?"

_"Hmm?"_

He glanced down at her, responding to his name for the first time in what felt like an eon. She felt herself, her very existence flicker as the mage kicked off across the ground, accelerating to a speed not possibly through conventional means. This was his magic. Hiraishin, he called it. She watched as the walls themselves blurred, and then they were gone, vanishing in an eyeblink.

_"Let's go home."_

**A/N: Gulp! Naruto as a badass assasin? Why does he remind me of a certain someone...? And he's taking Ikaruga to Fairy Tail? Oooh, this can't be good. Or, can it? I leave that to you to determine, dear reader. Regardless, a pair of deadly assasins showing up at the door of the most chaotic guild in all of Fiorre is going to be...exciting to say the least. Don't know if I'll continue this one. I just might leave it as a oneshot?**

**R&R! =D**


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